Machine for making boxes



L. E. LA BOMBARD. MACHINE FOR'MAKING Bona K APPLICATION FILED SEPT. I6| 1916-. RENEWED AUG.'29. 1919. 1,407,381.

L. E. LA BOMBARD. MACHINE FOR MAKING BOXES. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. I6; I9I6. IIENEWED AUG. v29, I9I9.

Pate-nm Fbb.- 21, l192?.

. 3 sHEETs-SHEET 2.

Zeep Y 4 L. E. LA BOMBARD.

Patented Feb. 21, 1922.

MACHINE FOR MAMAN. Boxes. vMPLICATION FILED SEPTHIS 1916. RENEWED AUG- 29,1919

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

preceding pail-shaped article so that said articles in nested form will travel along bef tween the belts 34 presently described.

rlhe table 32 has an extension or tongue 33 (Figs. 2 and 3) which extends partially into the space between two presser belts 34, the acting stretches of which are parallel or substantially so and constitute travelling vertical walls which grasp, and press with suflicient force to set the adhesive, the nested boxes that are being pushed along by and between said belts 34. Each belt 34 is mounted upon pulleys 35 and 37 carried by the ends of suitable 'supporting bars 36. Each pulley 37 is carried by a vertical shaft 38 mounted in a suitable bearing and hav ing a worm wheel '39 driven by a worm 40 carried by a shaft 41, said shaft 4l carrying the two worms for actuating the two worm wheels and. the two presser belts. The shaft 41 has'a pulley 42 on which is mounted a belt 43 driven .by av pulley 65 (Fig. 4) carried by shaft 64 hereinafter described.

In order that the stretches of the belts which form the walls for the nested series of boxes may exert a yielding pressure upon said nested boxes, l provide a series of rolls 46 (Figs. 2, 3,5 and 6) mounted upon stud shafts 47 risingfrom brackets 48 which are pivotally connected to the bars 36 at 49. The brackets have lugs 50 which straddle the bars 36, and springs 51 inserted between one lug of each bracket, and the bar 36, asvsh'own in Figures 5 and 6, exert a constant tendency to force the rolls 46 of the twopseries of rolls toward each other, to the limit prescribed by the other or outer lugs of the brackets.

The bars 36 are supported by any suitable frame work such as cross rods 52, having legs 53, and suitable tightener rolls 54 (Fig. 3) are provided for the belts 34.

I will now describe the mechanism for applying the Vadhesive to the proper pon tions of the blanks a, shown in Figure 7, the areas which receive the adhesive being shaded. a

Referring to Figures l and 4, a suitable glue receptacle 55 is provided, two glue wheels 56 being carried by a shaft 57 which is rotated by suitable gearing not necessary to described. A chain 58 having spaced lugs 59 is mounted at one end upon a sprocket 60 carried by a shaft 61, and at the other end by a sprocket 44 carried by a shaft 45.

As this chain is mounted so that it runs between the two wheels 56, the glue receptacle 55 will also be preferably made as tworeceptacles or boxes instead cf one, with a space between two such receptacles for the passage of the lower stretch of the chain 58. 1

vA suitably supportedy inclined table or kand feeding them onto the chain58. The

feed wheel 63 is carried by a shaft 64 which shaft also carries the pulley 65 for the belt 43 as hereinbefore described.V rlfhe shaft 64 is driven by a chain .66 which in turn is driven by the shaft 24. The shaft 24 .is driven through the medium of suitable gearing 67 by a shaft 68 having a drive pulley 69;

As each blank is fed byl the wheel 63 its edges pass under the guidesV 70 while its midwidth is held down by atop guide 7l supported by a cross rod 72'. l

The friction of the bars is such that when each blank arrives at this point, it' stops until one of the lugs of chain 58 contacts with the rear edge of the blank so as to push said blank along, the side flaps of the blank projecting and passing under segmental iiap depressers or deliectors 73 which are carried Y by the shaft 24. rlhe feed wheel and the feed chain and its lugs are so timed relatively to the speed of rotation of shaft 24, that the segments 73 do not act todepress the wings a of each blank (Fig. 7) but only act to depress the wings a2. rThe upper porn tions of the two glue wheels 56 areV slightly below the plane of vnormal travel of the wings of the blanks, so that no portions of the blanks will come in contact with the glue Wheels excepting those portions which are depressed or deflected by the segments 7 3.

To ensure continued movement .of the blanks with the feed chains, provide a series of rolls 76 carried by a bar 75 which is supported by a transverse rod 74. rlhe bar 75 is slotted as at 77 and the ,rolls 76, which are duplex, have their stems mounted in the slots V77. kThis enables the rolls 76 tol rise and fall relatively to the bar 7 5, said rolls simply acting as rotatingweights to hold the blanks down so that the lugs of the chain cannot slip under the blanks, but will feed them along, and discharge them upon the belt 26.

It is quite essential that the blanks shall not be deposited upon the belt 26 with glued areas overlapping unglued areas. Owing to the lugs of the chains 58, the blanks leave said chain accurately timed. I provide an inclined defiector 78 supported by a suitable cross bar 7 9 so that the blanks are guided down onto the belt 26 with the front and rear edges of adjacent blanks so positioned relatively to each other that there will be no overlapping of portions of the blanks which carry glue. At the bottom of the deflector is a roll 80 to press the blanks on the belt 26 and keep them from twisting or falling off from said belt. y

In operation the blanks a are automatically fed, by means of the wheel 63 and the feed indicated .at a2 in F i re 7 receive adhesive gu a on their under surfaces and said blanks are deposited on the; belt 26 in accurately spaced relationship and are then grasped between the two belts 14, 26 and carried around until they escape from the belt 26 under the pulley 27 so that they move along with the somewhat slowly travelling. belt 14. rThe operator, standing or sitting near the delivery end of the belty 14, manipulates the blanks on the creased lines to convert them to pail form. `When the first blank is folded it is slid along the tongue 33 until it is grasped between the very slowly travelling belts 34. Each succeeding bla-nk is folded over, and allowed to slide along with, the

p preceding folded article. .The folded articles are rapidly accumulated between the press ing belts 34 and it frequently happens in practice that the succession of folded articles accumulates along the tongue and over the table 32 onto a portion of the belt 14. l

By actual comparison tests it has been found that with a machine of this character, which automatically applies the adhesive to the proper portions of the blanks, brings' them to an exposed position for manually folding and then effects the setting of the `adhesive and delivers the articles, produces the work about four times as fast as the operator could effect the results when the glue is applied manually. lAnd of course it will be readily understood'that the glue is applied in definitely limited localities and that with such machine as herein described,

there is no such liability of improper ap-Y- plication of glue as exists when the glue v is applied 'manually It will be readily understood, of course, that the parts of the machine may be made adjustable laterally by any suitable mechanism to provide for operating on' blanks of different sizes. l

It is to be understoodv that the terms adhesive and glue used herein are synonymous. In the appended claims I employ the latter term for the sake of brevity and not for limitation.

In practice, the carrier belt 14 and the cooperating turning-over belt 26, travel so slowly that the blanks delivered thereto by the glue-applying mechanism are carried along either closely adjacent or in partially overlapped relationship. Of course, however, no glue-bearing surfaces of the'blanks are overlapped. ,The blanks travel such a distance before reaching the position where they are manually folded that the glue has time to partially dry. Therefore I am able to employ glue of a much more Huid nature than is employed when the foldingisdone immediately after the glue is applied,.be cause a thick or quick-drying glue must be used in the last mentioned case. paratively thin and slow-drying glue can vable however to effect rapid production, be-v -causethe blanks are rst glued singly,=while the one behind it.

VVfolding because the front portion `of the A comp vto employ glue of lower cost than' a thick` Y or quick-drying glue.

VBy .means of the gearing described, the blanks travel rapidly up to theftime when they are taken by the slowlymoving belts 26, 14. lThis is due, in the machine'illus ,e trated, to the fact that the gear 18 of shaft 17 (Fig. l) is 'driven by the small pinion 19 of shaft 20, said shaft being driven kby belt 22 from pulley 23 of shaft'24.v Each revolution of shaft 24 causesthe fiat-de# pressers 73thereof to effect the application of glue to one blankf'If the blanks were to travel at the same speed. when reaching their exposed positions'forl folding, asthey 85 do while receiving their glue, the produc- Y tion of the boxes would be vvery slow if the glue is to partially setlas described. I am 1 9o entirely separate from each other,' are then kaccumulated onybelty 26 in partially over-y lapped positions and immediately travel at reduced speed'so that the glue canA begin to set, andare theninverted andV travel along slowly in? exposed position so thatthey can be successively picked'up Vfor 'folding without having'this operation on any'y blank inter-- fered with by the next following blank. The turning over is essential wheny the blanksr are overlapped, because. otherwise each first blank wouldbe partly covered by By turning the blanks over, each first blank is entirely free forY next one is thenv below instead'ofabove said first one. i Y

Having now described `my invention, I claim:

l. A machine for facilitatingithe produc-.i f

tion of folded boxes,.comprising means forA 'causing blanks to travel singly vand separated at one rate of speed,rm'eans for applying Y glue to'selected portions ofthe blanks while i so travelling, andmeans for ontinuing the movement of the blanks at a lesser speed 'of travel in exposedr positions to `enable said blanks to be manually'folded.:

2. A machine for facilitating the production of folded boxes, comprising means for causing blanks to' travel singly. and Vseparated at one rate of speed,`means for applying glue to selected portions of the blanksv while so travelling, and means for turning the blanks over and Vcausing themto continue their travelling movement at areduced speed in exposed positions. i

3. A machine of the character described, having a surface for the 'manualfolding of blanks, means forl automatically applying blanks, means for overlapping said blanks,-

and means for turning the blanksy over and delivering them to said surfacea 5. machine of the character described, comprising an endless belt having its upper .tretch extending to exposed position to enable blanks to be folded thereon, means for applying glue to selected lateral under surfaces of the blanks, and means foreverlapping the blanks and delivering them to said upper stretch.

6. A machine of the character described, comprising an endless belt having its upper stretch extending to exposed position to enable blanks to be folded thereon, second belt cooperating with the first mentioned belt for turning blanks over and delivering them to said upper stretch, said second belt having an exposed blanloreceiving portion, means for applying glue to under surface portions of blanks, and means for overlapping the blanks and` delivering them upon said receiving` portion of the second belt.

7. A machine of the character described, comprising an.. endless belt having its upper stretch extending to exposed position to enable blanks to be folded thereon, a second belt cooperating with the first mentioned belt for turning blanks over and delivering` them Y to said upper stretch, said secondbelt having an exposed blank-receiving portion, means for applying glue to under surface portions of blanks and delivering them in overlapped positions upon said receiving portions of jthe second belt, and a deflect-or for guiding the blanks from the gluing` means onto the eX- posed portion of said second belt in accurate relationship,

8. In a machine of the character described, means for applying glue to selected lateral under areas of blanks, an elongated carrier to expose to the atmosphere. the blanks received from the gluing means and to deliver them to position for manual folding, and means for delivering the blanks from the glue-applying means to said carrier in overlapped positions.

9. ln L machine of the character described,

intermittently operative means for applying glue to selected marginal portions of blanks, edge guides for the blanks, and an endless carrier belt for receiving the blanks from the gluing means said belt being of less Width than said guides whereby the marginal portions of the blanks will project beyond the edges of. the belt.

10. ln a machine of the character described, a pair of glue Wheels in axial alinenient but spaced from eac-h other, means causing blanks to travel in a plane spaced from the peripheries of; said Wheels, deflectors lor acting upon portions of the blanks and causing those portions to ride in contact with the peripheries of said wheels, and means for ensuring accurate spacing of the travelling blanks to cause the deflectors to act only upon predetermined portions of the blanks.

ll. In a machine of the character described, a pair of glue Wheels in axial alinement but spaced from each other, means for causing blanks to travel in a plane spaced from the peripheries of said Wheels, a pair of rota-ry segments for acting upon portions of the blanks and causing those portions to ride in contact with the peripheries of said Wheels, and means for ensuring accurate spacing ot the travelling blanks to cause the 'segments to act only upon predetermined portions of the blanks.

l2. ln a machine of the character specitied, means for holding` folded b anks under continued pressure, said means comprising a pair of substantially parallel bars,brackets pivotally supported on said bars and having lugs straddling said bars and stud shafts rising from said brackets, rolls mounted on Vthe stud shafts, springs for swinging the brackets and their rolls of the tivo bars toward each other, a pair of belts having their operative stretches yieldingly backed by said rolls, and means for driving said belts.

13. A, machine the 'character described, having an elongated exposed surface for manual folding of boxes thereon, said surface being supported to resist folding pressure thereon, means for applying glue to blanks, means for delivering the blanks from the glue-applying means to said exposedsurface, and means for exerting pressure on the folded blanks.

ln testimony whereof l have aliiXed my signature.

VLEN lll. LA BOMBARD. 

